Senate Bill 2247

(As Sent to Governor)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 37-7-307, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972,
TO REVISE THE DETERMINATION OF THE ANNUAL CONVERSION OF UNUSED VACATION OR
PERSONAL LEAVE TO SICK LEAVE FOR LICENSED OR UNLICENSED SCHOOL EMPLOYEES AND TO
RECOGNIZE LEAVE ACCUMULATED UNDER PREVIOUS POLICY; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

37-7-307.
(1) For purposes of this
section, the term "licensed employee" means any employee of a public
school district required to hold a valid license by the Commission on Teacher
and Administrator Education, Certification and Licensure and Development.

(2)
The school board of a school district shall establish by rules and
regulations a policy of sick leave with pay for licensed employees and teacher
assistants employed in the school district, and such policy shall include the
following minimum provisions for sick and emergency leave with pay:

(a)
Each licensed employee and teacher assistant, at the beginning of each
school year, shall be credited with a minimum sick leave allowance, with pay,
of seven (7) days for absences caused by illness or physical disability of the
employee during that school year.

(b)
Any unused portion of the total sick leave allowance shall be carried
over to the next school year and credited to such licensed employee and teacher
assistant if the licensed employee or teacher assistant remains employed in the
same school district. In the event any
public school licensed employee or teacher assistant transfers from one public
school district in Mississippi to another, any unused portion of the total sick
leave allowance credited to such licensed employee or teacher assistant shall
be credited to such licensed employee or teacher assistant in the computation
of unused leave for retirement purposes under Section 25-11-109. Accumulation of sick leave allowed under
this section shall be unlimited.

(c)
No deduction from the pay of such licensed employee or teacher assistant
may be made because of absence of such licensed employee or teacher assistant
caused by illness or physical disability of the licensed employee or teacher
assistant until after all sick leave allowance credited to such licensed employee
or teacher assistant has been used.

(d)
For the first ten (10) days of absence of a licensed employee because of
illness or physical disability, in any school year, in excess of the sick leave
allowance credited to such licensed employee, there may be deducted from the
pay of such licensed employee the established substitute amount of licensed
employee compensation paid in that local school district, necessitated because
of the absence of the licensed employee as a result of illness or physical disability. Thereafter, the regular pay of such absent
licensed employee may be suspended and withheld in its entirety for any period
of absence because of illness or physical disability during that school year.

(3)
Beginning with the school year 1983-1984, each licensed employee at the
beginning of each school year shall be credited with a minimum personal leave
allowance, with pay, of two (2) days for absences caused by personal reasons
during that school year. Such personal
leave shall not be taken on the first day of the school term, the last day of
the school term, on a day previous to a holiday or a day after a holiday, unless on such days an immediate family
member of the employee is being deployed for military service. Personal leave may be used for professional
purposes, including absences caused by attendance of such licensed employee at
a seminar, class, training program, professional association or other functions
designed for educators. No deduction from
the pay of such licensed employee may be made because of absence of such
licensed employee caused by personal reasons until after all personal leave
allowance credited to such licensed employee has been used. However, the superintendent of a school district,
in his discretion, may allow a licensed employee personal leave in addition to
any minimum personal leave allowance, under the condition that there shall be
deducted from the salary of such licensed employee the actual amount of any
compensation paid to any person as a substitute, necessitated because of the
absence of the licensed employee. Any
unused portion of the total personal leave allowance up to five (5) days shall
be carried over to the next school year and credited to such licensed employee
if the licensed employee remains employed in the same school district.

(4)
Beginning with the school year 1992-1993, each licensed employee shall
be credited with a professional leave allowance, with pay, for each day of
absence caused by reason of such employee's statutorily required membership and
attendance at a regular or special meeting held within the State of Mississippi
of the State Board of Education, the Commission on Teacher and Administrator
Education, Certification and Licensure and Development, the Commission on
School Accreditation, the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television, the
meetings of the state textbook rating committees or other meetings authorized
by local school board policy.

(5)
Upon retirement from employment, each licensed and nonlicensed employee
shall be paid for not more than thirty (30) days of unused accumulated leave
earned while employed by the school district in which the employee is last
employed. Such payment for licensed
employees shall be made by the school district at a rate equal to the amount
paid to substitute teachers and for nonlicensed employees, the payment shall be
made by the school district at a rate equal to the federal minimum wage. The payment shall be treated in the same
manner for retirement purposes as a lump-sum payment for personal leave as
provided in Section 25-11-103(e). Any
remaining lawfully credited unused leave, for which payment has not been made,
shall be certified to the Public Employees' Retirement System in the same
manner and subject to the same limitations as otherwise provided by law for
unused leave. No payment for unused
accumulated leave may be made to either a licensed or nonlicensed employee at
termination or separation from service for any purpose other than for the
purpose of retirement.

(6)
The school board may adopt rules and regulations which will reasonably
aid to implement the policy of sick and personal leave, including, but not
limited to, rules and regulations having the following general effect:

(a)
Requiring the absent employee to furnish the certificate of a physician
or dentist or other medical practitioner as to the illness of the absent
licensed employee, where the absence is for four (4) or more consecutive school
days, or for two (2) consecutive school days immediately preceding or following
a nonschool day;

(b)
Providing penalties, by way of full deduction from salary, or entry on
the work record of the employee, or other appropriate penalties, for any
materially false statement by the employee as to the cause of absence;

(c)
Forfeiture of accumulated or future sick leave, if the absence of the
employee is caused by optional dental or medical treatment or surgery which
could, without medical risk, have been provided, furnished or performed at a
time when school was not in session;

(d)
Enlarging, increasing or providing greater sick or personal leave
allowances than the minimum standards established by this section in the
discretion of the school board of each school district.

(7)
School boards may include in their budgets provisions for the payment of
substitute employees, necessitated because of the absence of regular licensed
employees. All such substitute
employees shall be paid wholly from district funds, except as otherwise provided
for long-term substitute teachers in Section 37-19-20. Such school boards, in their discretion,
also may pay, from district funds other than adequate education program funds,
the whole or any part of the salaries of all employees granted leaves for the
purpose of special studies or training.

(8)
The school board may further adopt rules and regulations which will
reasonably implement such leave policies for all other nonlicensed and hourly
paid school employees as the board deems appropriate.

(9)
Vacation leave granted to either licensed or nonlicensed employees shall
be synonymous with personal leave.
Unused vacation or personal leave accumulated by licensed employees in
excess of the maximum five (5) days which may be carried over from one (1) year
to the next may be converted to sick leave.
The annual conversion of unused vacation or personal leave to sick days
for licensed or unlicensed employees shall not exceed the allowable number of
personal leave days as provided in Section 25-3-93. The annual total number of converted unused vacation and/or
personal days added to the annual unused sick days for any employee shall not
exceed the combined allowable number of days per year provided in Sections 25-3-93
and 25-3-95. Local school board
policies that provide for vacation, personal and sick leave for employees shall
not exceed the provisions for leave as provided in Sections 25-3-93 and 25-3-95. Any personal or vacation leave previously
converted to sick leave under a lawfully adopted policy before May 1, 2004, or
such personal or vacation leave accumulated and available for use prior to May
1, 2004, under a lawfully adopted policy but converted to sick leave after May
1, 2004, shall be recognized as accrued leave by the local school district
and available for use by the employee.
The leave converted under a lawfully adopted policy prior to May 1,
2004, or such personal and vacation leave accumulated and available for use as
of May 1, 2004, which was subsequently converted to sick leave may be
certified to the Public Employees' Retirement System upon termination of
employment and any such leave previously converted and certified to the Public
Employees' Retirement System shall be recognized.

(10)
(a) For the purposes of this
subsection, the following words and phrases shall have the meaning ascribed in
this paragraph unless the context requires otherwise:

(i) "Catastrophic injury or illness" means a life-threatening
injury or illness of an employee or a member of an employee's immediate family
that totally incapacitates the employee from work, as verified by a licensed
physician, and forces the employee to exhaust all leave time earned by that
employee, resulting in the loss of compensation from the local school
district for the employee.
Conditions that are short-term in nature, including, but not limited to,
common illnesses such as influenza and the measles, and common injuries, are
not catastrophic. Chronic illnesses or
injuries, such as cancer or major surgery, that result in intermittent absences
from work and that are long-term in nature and require long recuperation
periods may be considered catastrophic.

(b)
Any school district employee may donate a portion of his or her unused
accumulated personal leave or sick leave to another employee of the same or
another school district who is suffering from a catastrophic injury or illness
or who has a member of his or her immediate family suffering from a
catastrophic injury or illness, in accordance with the following:

(i) The employee donating the leave (the "donor employee")
shall designate the employee who is to receive the leave (the "recipient
employee") and the amount of unused accumulated personal leave and sick
leave that is to be donated, and shall notify the school district
superintendent or his designee of his or her designation.

(ii) The maximum amount of unused accumulated personal leave that an
employee may donate to any other employee may not exceed a number of days that
would leave the donor employee with fewer than seven (7) days of personal leave
remaining, and the maximum amount of unused accumulated sick leave that an
employee may donate to any other employee may not exceed fifty percent (50%) of
the unused accumulated sick leave of the donor employee.

(iii) An employee must have exhausted all of his or her available leave
before he or she will be eligible to receive any leave donated by another
employee. Eligibility for donated leave
shall be based upon review and approval by the donor employee's supervisor.

(iv) Before an employee may receive donated leave, he or she must
provide the school district superintendent or his designee with a physician's
statement that states the beginning date of the catastrophic injury or illness,
a description of the injury or illness, and a prognosis for recovery and the
anticipated date that the recipient employee will be able to return to work.

(v) If the total amount of leave that is donated to any employee is
not used by the recipient employee, the whole days of donated leave shall be
returned to the donor employees on a pro rata basis, based on the ratio of the
number of days of leave donated by each donor employee to the total number of
days of leave donated by all donor employees.

(vi) Donated leave shall not be used in lieu of disability retirement.

SECTION
2. This act shall take effect and
be in force from and after its passage.